Save Tucker!

Note:  We continue to follow this story because Save Tucker! was told by a follower that this particular principal was specifically selected by the same individuals who were involved in the push for a Lakeside City.  Their plans would have devastated the Tucker community by splitting it up and leaving some without any commercial tax revenue in their region to help keep their own property taxes affordable.   We want others to understand that the decisions these self appointed leaders wanted to make would have been bad for everyone, regardless of where you lived.  They made decisions based on the old-school DeKalb corrupt way of doing things.  The methods that have left their own community to clean up and fix the messes like this one... bringing in a principal based on who he knows, not what he knows.  Maybe now they will stay out of the schools AND regional politics?  We can only hope.    This article below is from the AJC: After oust...

In an email sent to its supporters this week, Lavista Hills Alliance announced that it is closing down some of its operations and suspending some of its campaign activities.  They also alluded to a long-forgotten challenge they once made to the accuracy of the vote that sent Tucker toward incorporation and sent them home empty handed.   According to the email, which was forwarded to us by an anonymous source, Lavista Hills' leaders are still holding out hope that the state department will issue some kind of a final report, telling them whether or not they found any fraud in connection to their allegations against the DeKalb Board of Elections and its Superintendent, Maxine Daniels.    Save Tucker! followers may also recall that we, too, had questions regarding the fairness of some of the voting procedures taking place in DeKalb, mainly the allowing of candidates onto ballots without properly verifying their stated place of residence.  We  ha...

This was the vision for a "Tucker Township" as visioned by a beta version of a new school review website.  The website is:  https://k12.niche.com/t/tucker-township-dekalb-ga/ Who drew this map?  We are not really sure.  We stumbled upon it recently while looking for Tucker election results. We do, however, think this map, called "Tucker Township" actually shows a good compromise between Tucker and Lavista Hills that could have worked well for everyone.   It offers a great way to share the Northlake area commercial tax revenue.  So, why didn't anyone suggest something like this  prior to putting forth competing bills in the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions?  And, why is Tucker's city still being allowed to move forward when it has been called "unconstitutional" by even the legislators who supported it? Limited services government in the form of a new city is something that the Georgia constitution does not allow, apparently. ...

Ben Shakleford says he reached out to people he knew after the Lavista Hills referendum failed at the ballot box and asked, "... what do you think about maybe annexation?  And, we're next to Chamblee." If you haven't heard, a portion of the former Lavista Hills movement (which is also formerly the Lakeside City and City of Briarcliff initiatives) has not stopped pushing for a city, any city as long as it is not in any way related to Tucker, even after losing in the referendum vote this past November.   So, far, we have heard them say that they have: Trimmed up their map, calling it the "North Lavista Hills" area, basically cutting things off at Briarlake Road, but taking in all the commercial not already in Tucker, most notably the Northlake Mall which they have said they do not shop at themselves, Brought back Mary Kay Woodworth to lead the effort until she quits, again, Cut out some of the areas that they initially claimed were the ones to star...

We understand that the city vote is over, but we still think the Tucker community deserves to know the truth about how we got where we are today ...   a city voted for in a referendum and elections  taking place in under a month (March 1), runoffs March 29.  We got here based on a lot of involved people ... some of whom we are now finding out don't even live in Tucker at all . On the home page of Tucker 2015, you will find this photo (below) which appears to feature the smiling, happy faces of the T uc ker residents who fought to in corporate the small town community into a city, right?  Well, look a gain... most , if not all, of the m are not Tucker re sidents at all. The se are not the ONLY Tucker city supporters with residency issues!  Stay tu ned ...

You may have heard about the security breach recently with the Secretary of State's office and your voter information file, but ... did you know there is a more direct link between the new city plans and that data breech ? It seems that Tucker 2015 , all about local control, couldn't find the right "local" person to run their political campaign, so what did they do?  Well, they hired a political consultant firm that just so happens to be located in ... Lavista Hills .  More work to be done in DeKalb by the FBI. And, it wasn't just any ol' political consultant, this particular consultant, which residents were never told that their feasibility donations might be used to fund, just so happens to be the same, small firm, Apache Political , that received one of the very confidential data disks from the state Elections Office.  It's not clear if they received it via their work as a consultant, via another affiliation with a blog site on pol...

Chamblee, GA, January 28, 2016 – by Trey Benton – Could areas that were part of the failed 2015 City of LaVista Hills referendum who supported Cityhood be annexed in to the City of Chamblee? Perhaps….if advocates can garner enough support to convince Chamblee Officials it’s a good move and if State Legislators agree to support it. A movement to gain citizen support to annex portions of the formerly proposed map for a City of LaVista Hills, a cityhood effort that failed last November by less than 150 votes, into the City of Chamblee is gaining momentum. And, Chamblee City Officials tell The Post that if citizens can show there is enough support and a logical geographic boundary is identified, they would be willing to give the idea serious consideration.

Sandy Springs (2005) … 94% Milton (2006) … 86% Johns Creek (2006) … 84% Chattahoochee Hills (2007) … 84% Dunwoody (2008) … 81% Tucker (2015) … 74% Peachtree Corners (2011) … 57% Brookhaven (2012) … 55% Lavista Hills (2015) … 49.5% South Fulton (2007) … 15% Source: County Election Offices.

According to ABC News, an audit will be conducted to review the voter files and data in the Georgia Secretary of State's office. Save Tucker! notes that the website in questions is also connected with the consulting firm said to have worked with the Tucker 2015 group in securing their recent victory in the cityhood referendum.  Read the admission at the end of the article, "Lavista Hills: Doomed from the Start" by Mike Hassinger:  here .  The company Apache Consulting worked on the Tucker campaign, but the owner says he lives and works in the Lavista Hills proposed city limits. The Peach Pundit reported that it "threw away" the disk that had the voter data on it, which they had received sometime in October, prior to the city vote for both Tucker and Lavista Hills.    Georgia to Hire Auditing Firm After Voters' Data Released ATLANTA — Nov 20, 2015, 8:41 PM ET ( By Kathleen Foody, Associated Press ) Georgia's secretary of state said Friday that...

Lavista Hills Alliance wants  you to report potential fraud to them and then they will tell the proper authorities. That's: YOU ------->    LAVISTA HILLS ALLIANCE ==>  PROPER AUTHORITIES The County Interim CEO wanted employees to blow their whistles for Mike Bowers and then he would alert the proper authorities if he found anything.   That is:  WHISTLEBLOWERS --------------->  MIKE BOWERS ------------> PROPER AUTHORITIES Do you see the potential for problems with the above scenarios?  Save Tucker! would like to recommend another approach.  It would go something like this: YOU ---------------->  PROPER AUTHORITIES    or WHISTLEBLOWERS ===============> PROPER AUTHORITIES In the current scenario with the "unsecured memory card" being located and then checked for possible fraud, however, we don't really see where there is a need for anyone to be contacting any authority othe...

According to the AJC and a Channel 2 Action News Report: Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp and the GBI opened an investigation Thursday into alleged voting irregularities – including a stray voting machine memory card – in the referendum that narrowly defeated the proposed city of LaVista Hills. A DeKalb election supervisor alleged that he found an unsecured memory card Wednesday that contained results from the Briarlake Elementary precinct, according to Channel 2 Action News. It’s unknown whether the votes on the memory card were counted in the precinct’s totals, where voters supported LaVista Hills 378-313. “As Secretary of State I take any allegation of elections fraud seriously,” Kemp said. “Our office has opened an official investigation of possible criminal activity during the Nov. 3 elections in DeKalb County.” Investigators take a voting machine and a desktop computer from the DeKalb County elections office on Thursday afternoon November 5, 2015. Ben...

Lavista Hills Donors Revealed  Save Tucker! edited this story slightly from its original text submitted by DeKalb Strong, a group opposed to the incorporation of new cities in DeKalb County, GA. Lavista Hills raised eyebrows back in August by holding a $500 'suggested minimum donation' event , where they actively solicited money from vendors who do businesses with cities.    Mary Kay Woodworth was quoted as saying, "We think it is great that they want to invest in us before we invest in them."  But, handing over government contracts to vendors simply because they "paid in advance" to receive them is exactly the kind of system that we have in DeKalb already.  No request for proposals.  No bids.  Just good old fashioned "wink-wink. nudge-nudge." deals made among business buddies.  How does one justify running a campaign all about "local control" while accepting money from companies that are not even located in our c...

The new cities of Lavista Hills and Tucker will be voted on this November 3, 2015.  Residents who say they hope to escape from county problems will be disappointed to learn that the same people who have been accused of corruption in the county are behind these new cities and have pitted the two areas against each other intentionally.  Otherwise, the residents would have no reason to incorporate unless they feared "takeover" from the other side or surrounding cities.  Those fear tactics should not be tolerated and are, in fact, illegal under federal law.  Don't vote for a city if you are not sure who will be leading it and what they intend to do.  We can continue to get along with our neighbors and stop the fighting and destructive competition that keeps most people's focus on each other rather than the true thieves funneling money to their own friends and family networks.  DON'T JOIN THEM by approving the ridiculous boundaries and poor ser...

The state House of Representatives Committee on Cities and Annexations was formed at the end of the last legislative session.  They are actually working on that "better process" that DeKalb County residents have been asking for.  The only problem - it won't come in time to help you if your property is in Central DeKalb because you get to vote on the last two cities that were okayed by the legislature to move forward without a clear process that protects taxpayers from the problems that we have already encountered. That committee also brought up something new that was not discussed during the legislative hearings.  The concept of a 'city lite' (a limited city government that can only add services if approved by voters in a referendum) is something that Tucker has indicated that it will be, may actually be unconstitutional in the state of Georgia.   Therefore, Tucker's charter may actually be unconstitutional in the state of Georgia....

Do they really want a city? Do you recall how the issue of cities for Central DeKalb County first came about? It was right on the coattails of the Brookhaven cityhood victory (a narrow margin victory with some areas claiming they voted even though they don't live in the city limits, but that's another story.). There were some leaders from that movement who were thrilled with the victory and ready to move on down the 285 loop so they could start it all up again. So, next stop ... Lakeside, where the groundwork had already been laid as much as possible, thanks to school board member and vice-chair Paul Womack and Lakeside's former principal and their "at-large" board member, Dr. Eugene Walker. Except they aren't even involved in the whole city thing any longer.  Come to think of it... neither is Steve Schultz - the man who once claimed the city of Lakeside was his bright idea.  He later faded into silence when his personal connection to the politici...

Just a reminder for those who have felt "at ease" with the proposed cities of Lavista Hills and Tucker because they have something in their charter that says you will get a vote if they ever decide to take on more services or a higher tax rate.  That might be what the charter says.  But, that's not what the city councils have to do.  If they want to take on a larger amount of your tax dollars, all they have to do is ask the legislature for an amendment to the original charter.  It can be written, passed and signed into law without ever gaining your input or consent.  In fact, we don't have to look very far back to find an example of how the new cities that have started in Georgia have already betrayed the voters on this seemingly simple concept. In Dunwoody, July  16, 2013, Reporter Kiri Walton described this situation: Dunwoody Residents Demand Public Vote on Proposed Fire Dept. Funding   Dunwoody citizens are speaking out about conce...

This letter was posted on the Decaturish site, under the title " Just Say No to New Cities ."  It is true for both the city of Lavista Hills as well as the city of Tucker.  Dear Decaturish, It is my understanding that the LaVista Hills movement is upset with the AJC article that the proposed revenue will be less than anticipated . I am more concerned about other misrepresentations to the community by the pro-city movement. The pro-LaVista Hi lls group in public meetings contends that court functions will remain in DeKalb County despite the fact that they are going to duplicate services. Regardless of what you call it, leaders  in the city effort have been less than  transparent about the cost of  services and where they plan  to get the funds. LaVista Hills residents will have to support the County Court system whether there is a new city or not. However, LaVista Hills will also unnecessarily duplicate services for mun...